A New Direction

Hi, this is me. I'm Katie.

I have gone from fit to flabby to fit again and flabby flabby flabby flabby in the past 15 years.

Exercise had always been part of my life growing up. Track & Field and basketball through middle school and high school. Sometimes working out 3 times a day to keep up with the sports. And it was always because I had to for a team. In college, I ran, and I went to the gym. Sometimes. I gained the freshman 15 easily and the summer after my freshman year, cut Snapple from my diet and started getting in a running routine again.  I lost it easily and kept it up in fits and spurts through college and maintained a pretty decent size 10 inamongst my late nights studying and blowing off steam.  Then graduate school where I was going to the gym often, finding my love of the erg machine and walking a mile with hills each day from my parking lot to the physics department. So I stayed in shape mostly.  Then came time to work. My motivation flagged. I was going through a rather deep depression and gained a bit of weight, but not too much. Started therapy and began going to the gym on a regular basis again and again, fell in love with the erg machine. Moved, changed jobs and the gym was way out of the way. But I had a neighborhood that I walked in. I walked everywhere. I slimmed down to a size 8.

Me in 2008. My goal is to be there again, just with more muscle.

This was when I started really having a social life. I finally felt like I was making friends and spending time with them. So a lot of my socializing involves eating and drinking. I transitioned to craft beer. Moved again, and started a business. So between work, settling in my home, and running a business, working out and finding the time to do anything other than grab easy food and go was difficult and I have ballooned. Surpassing any weight that I had ever been. Even while pregnant I was 20 lbs lighter than I am today. I am in the worst shape of my life. But, for the most part, I am happy. I am fulfilled. I have great friendships and am working on building my own business.  So that's where I am. My inside is still not perfectly balanced, but I'm addressing that by returning to therapy. And my physical shape is awful.

Last year, I trained and biked the MS150 and started attempting to do weigh watchers. I lost a bit of weight and was able to fit into some of my size 10 clothes well again, but I fell off the wagon when I started investing more and more time into my business. Which my business needed it. And then, then I went and I fell in love with an amazing man. And we were indulgent. No food or drink was off limits. But I gained any weight I had lost and I gained more. And I started feeling fat and sloppy and hated the way I fit into clothes. And my job has been rather stressful, so I've been stress eating when I should be doing activity to combat the stress. I started down the self-loathing path that is very dangerous for me.  So I enough. I don't want to look like this anymore and I don't want to feel like this anymore.

So I'm on a journey. I'm on a challenge. My friend Jennifer Burgess is a role model for me. She has shaped up from having twins 20 months ago and now has a 6 pack. She is a BeachBody Coach. And I have joined her February Challenge group, but started as soon as I got my materials.

So join me as I forge a new direction and carve out time for myself to be good to my body and still keep all the rest of my balls in the air.  Join me as I improve myself body, mind, and soul. So that I can love myself as much as my family and my boyfriend love me.

James & I at a friend's wedding

I have started each day with a Shakeology shake in my blenderball cup.  I am splitting between chocolate and greenberry flavors.

Chocolate is more like Chocolate/berry (either cherry or raspberry, but berry-like) and I've had it with both water plain and with coffee as the base. I like having it with the coffee as it just ups the morning wakeup factor a little bit.

Greenberry is more like banana cinnamon. REALLY. I expected greens and berries. But it's not. So don't expect it. If you like bananas (I do), then this will be great for you. It's like a spiced banana bread in a cup. I haven't tried it with anything other than water, yet. I'm thinking about brewing some green tea to use as a base in the mornings. Some suggest orange juice, but I'm trying to cut out the sugars in the juice.

The workout program I'm using

For fitness, I'm following the ChaLEAN Extreme workout regime and am just on my first week, so today is my first of the Burn Intervals and AB Burner workouts.  I am a lunkerhead. I sleep until the last possible minute, so for the moment, I'm working out in the evening, after work. But I am missing out on a lot of activities by doing this. I'm being kind to myself by first transitioning to the working out 5 days a week. Next week, I start kicking it to the morning before I leave for work. Which means that I need to wake up 2 hours earlier than usual. 10-15 minutes for water & changing, 30-45 minutes for working out (though the Burn Intervals is 45 minutes alone, so with the AB Burner, it's longer), 10 minutes to cool down, 20 minute shower, 30 minutes for getting ready.

Right now, I'm only minimally changing the way I eat. I'm getting lunch and snack at My Fit Foods and trying to focus on eating dinners that have a high protein ratio (a lot less pizza), and have so far been maintaining keeping my alcoholic drinks per night to 2 or less (I've overindulged a couple nights this January).  I'm in the craft beer business, so no, I won't be giving that up. I need to stay knowledgable and connected to the scene. This change in lifestyle has to be gradual.

Stats
Weight: 181 lbs
Pushups: almost able to do 1 on my knees. Seriously. I can go halfway down and then up.
Lower Body Weights: 9 lbs
Upper Body Weights: 5 lbs
Back Weights: 9 lbs

Scary Images!

Yes, this is me. I need to retake my before photos in front of something that's white instead of my beige wall.

Keeping Strong,
Katie